BOSNIA NEWS

AMMAN,Jordan – The Bosnian Presidency members met on the third and last day of their visit to the Kingdom of Jordan with the country’s Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhiti and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan Abdul Ilah al-Khatib.

They agreed that a significant progress has been made in relations between the two countries and that there are positive conditions for development and concretization of the overall cooperation, especially in the field of economy and trade.

The officials expressed wishes of promotion of political and cultural relations between the two countries and joint contribution in peace building processes in the Middle East and at the Balkans, the Bosnian Presidency announced yesterday.

They expressed readiness to promote cooperation in the field of sport, education and science and technology.

Jordanian officials also expressed interest in investing into Bosnia.

The Presidency members thanked the Kingdom of Jordan for all the help and support to Bosnia.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – “I believe that the Bonn Powers must be backed up by military force”, the international community's High Representative and the EU Special Representative in Bosnia Christian Schwarz-Schilling stated during his visit to the EUFOR.

He was awarded yesterday a EU Meritorious Medal by Commander of EUFOR Rear Admiral Hans-Jochen Witthauer, on behalf of High Representative and General Secretary of the EU Council Mr Javier Solana.

”Some appear to believe that it is now possible to declare victory and to wind EUFOR down. I respect their view, but I do not share it”, Schwarz-Schilling said.

”I also believe that EUFOR has an important reassurance role to play. On a day-to-day basis, this task might seem uninspiring. But don’t forget that this country went through hell.

He added that the EUFOR has an immense significance in the trust-building process. ”EUFOR is also an important member of the EU family. I am proud of the work of all members of the EU family and the way in which we work together to help build a better future for Bosnia," he said.

` "We constantly have to adjust and to improvise. But we must not lose sight of our objectives, and we must keep the international community and especially the EU together”, Schwarz-Schilling said.

In other news, the international community's High Representative in Bosnia Christian Schwarz–Schilling imposed a Law on Monday according to which the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center ran by state will be founded. A Muslim graveyard will be ran by the Memorial Foundation.

State of Bosnia will run the Memorial through a steering board under the Bosnian Council of Ministers’ jurisdiction.

The High Representative told the press on Monday in Sarajevo that he was lead by the fact that the memorial must not be an object of anyone’s political games.

”I cannot leave without making sure this Law is not made a victim of political maneuvers”, Schwarz-Schilling said.

This Law has already been discussed June 13 at the Bosnian Parliament’s House of Representatives. None of the delegates voted against it, but the delegates of the Serbians living in Bosnia did not attend the session and that automatically meant the lack of quorum for adoption of the Law.

Schwarz-Schilling said that party and political calculations regarding this and many other issues are unacceptable.

Operative expenses for the Memorial will be financed from the Bosnian state budget. The steering board will nominate an advisory work group. The board and work group members will have a 4-year mandate.

”Present employees of the Srebrenica-Potocari Foundation will automatically become the memorial employees. The centre will be secured by the Bosnian State Agency for Investigation and Protection (SIPA) ”, the High Representative said.

This Law, according to him, is directly related to all the people who lost their loved ones in Srebrenica. The Law will make sure that the memory of the genocide victims is preserved.

”This is also directly related to capability of the entire country to start the healing process of the wounds opened in Srebrenica”, the High Representative said.

SREBRENICA,Bosnia – The President of the Coordination Team for Srebrenica Igor Davidovic stated that the team members have talked about the realization of several projects of economic recovery of Srebrenica and that their implementation is in progress.

The first stage of electrification project for several villages has been realized along with the Skelani road reconstruction project.

Davidovic said that the participants of the meeting talked about the plans for distribution of funds that have been approved for Srebrenica by the EU and the Bosnian government.

Clifford Bond added that the CISCO company from the USA, in cooperation with the USAID, will form an IT academy in Srebrenica, which will open the way to investments and contribute a faster employment process in the region.

The FBIH Entity Coordinator Edin Music said that the FBIH entity has defined the priorities with Srebrenica municipality representatives and that 40 houses will be reconstructed. He added that the FBIH entity government planned to finance the construction of three local roads; which is an investment worth 1,6 million Bosnian Marks (1,1 million USD).

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - The Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said yesterday in Sarajevo that Estonia and Bosnia had not yet developed economic relations and that this situation should be changed soon. Ansip, who arrived earlier the same day for an official visit to Bosnia, met in Sarajevo with his Bosnian counterpart Nikola Spiric.

The two premiers also discussed European integration and Bosnia's slow progress towards the European Union.

Ansip also announced the withdrawal of Estonian troops serving with the European Union Force (EUFOR) in Bosnia.The around 40 Estonian troops would pull out of the 3,000-strong EUFOR soon, he said.

The European Union announced earlier this year plans to cut its 6,000-strong peacekeeping mission (EUFOR) to some 2,500 as security has improved in the former Balkans hotspot.

Ansip also offered Bosnia experience of his country's membership talks with the European Union. Estonia was among 10 mostly post-communist countries that joined the bloc in 2004.

Estonia endured painful reforms, but managed to implement them quickly, he said, advising Bosnia to do the same.

"The most important thing (about EU integration) is to do your homework," Ansip stressed.

Bosnia is yet to take the first step to EU membership by signing a stabilisation and association agreement.

Bosnia and Estonia, apart form good friendly relations, have not developed any form of economic cooperation. They will sign several agreements on protection of investments, railway and river transport, double taxation avoidance and some other agreements.

This was stated yesterday by Bosnia's Prime Minister Nikola Spiric, after a meeting he had with the Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, who is in a visit to Bosnia.

Spiric, who thanked the Estonian troops for support to Bosnia.

”Estonia is a country which had received help from the USA and EU during the association preparations. Today, that country is helping others. I am especially encouraged by the fact that this country is siding the EU expansion”, Spiric said.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - In 2006, a hundred foreign citizens were deported from Bosnia. This is a 66.66 percent increase compared to 2005, when 60 foreign citizens were deported.

The data comes from a report on the Bosnian state of affairs related to human trafficking and illegal immigration and the implementation of the action plan to curb human trafficking and illegal immigration in Bosnia in 2006, which was released to the press today with the financial support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia.

According to the information of the Bosnian state coordinator for the fight against human traffficking and illegal immigration, the reasons for deportation were illegally crossing the state border, which applies to 70 foreign citizens, illegally residing in Bosnia (17 foreing citizens), committing criminal acts (one foreign citizen), abuse of opiates (one foreign citizen), while 11 foreign citizens were deported for "other reasons." Out of the total number of deported foreign citizens, 85 were deported under escort and 15 without escort.